Luca Arbore or Arbure (Old Cyrillic: ;Constantin Velichi, "Documente inedite de la Ștefan-cel-mare la Ieremia Movilă", in Revista Istorică, Issues 7–9/1934, p. 245 Renaissance Latin: HerborusNicolae Iorga, "Cronică", in Revista Istorică, Issues 7–9/1934, p. 291 or Copacius;Pâslariuc, pp. 8, 15 died April 1523) was a Moldavian boyar, diplomat, and statesman, several times commander of the country's military. He first rose to prominence in 1486, during the rule of Stephen III, Prince of Moldavia, to whom he was possibly related. He became the long-serving gatekeeper (or castellan) of Suceava, bridging military defense and administrative functions with a diplomatic career. Arbore therefore organized the defense of Suceava during the Polish invasion of 1497, after which he was confirmed as one of Moldavia's leading courtiers.
As a military commander, Arbore participated in Moldavian's occupation of Pokuttya in 1502. He is tentatively identified as "Luca the Vlach", who served Stephen on crucial diplomatic missions to Poland and the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Also a great landowner and patron of the arts, Arbore commissioned the painting of Arbore Church. The building is one of the eight Moldavian churches on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Gatekeeper Arbore was identified, possibly erroneously, as a pretender to the Moldavian throne in 1505. He still served Stephen's son Bogdan III, who needed his services in particular during the Moldavian–Polish border clashes of that year. He maintained his position despite suffering defeat, and, possibly as a hetman, went on to serve as tutor of Bogdan's orphaned son, Stephen IV "Ștefăniță". As such, he aligned the country with Poland and waged war against the Crimean Khanate (a proxy for the Ottoman Empire), winning a major victory at Ștefănești in August 1518.
In 1523, the prince accused the Arbore males of insubordination, and had most of them executed. Although the original accusation was probably spurious, the execution itself sparked an actual boyar revolt. The Arbore line was largely extinguished in 1523, but survived mainly through female descendants; the name was eventually reused by people who were distantly related to the original family, including, in the late 19th-century, the scholar-politician Zamfir Arbore. By then, the gatekeeper had also been recovered as a symbolic figure in the literature of authors such as Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Mihai Eminescu, and Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea.
Biography Early life Born at an unknown date,Eșanu, p. 136 Luca was the son of Cârstea Arbore, who served as pârcălab of Neamț Citadel in the 1470s, and his wife Nastasia.Pahomi, pp. 85, 90; Stoicescu, p. 261 Various researchers argue that Cârstea, possibly known as Ioachim in some sources, was brothers with Stephen III—making Luca eligible for the princely throne.Eșanu, p. 136. See also Pâslariuc, p. 4 Luca also had a brother, the Pitar Ion, and a sister, Anușca.Stoicescu, pp. 261, 267 Anușca went on to marry the boyar Crasnăș. The latter's father, also named Crasnăș, was famous as a dissenting boyar, having reportedly deserted Stephen III during the Battle of Baia.Stoicescu, pp. 266–267 Cârstea himself remained loyal to the prince down to his death. He was killed by the invading Ottoman army during the invasion of 1476, either at Vaslui or in front of Neamț Citadel.Eșanu, p. 136; Pahomi, p. 85; Pâslariuc, p. 8
Luca's main office was gatekeeper of Suceava from September 14 (New Style: September 24), 1486.Pâslariuc, p. 8; Stoicescu, p. 261 The attributes of this office were greatly expanded by Stephen: it implied command offices in the Moldavian military forces and diplomatic functions, obliging Arbore to become a polyglot. By 1500, he was fluent in Church Slavonic, Polish, and Latin.Eșanu, p. 137 From 1486, Stephen granted his gatekeeper half of Țăpești village, on the Lozova River (the other half was awarded to Duma Burdur in 1499).Chelcu & Chelcu, p. 153
In parallel, Arbore was the squire of an eponymous estate in Bukovina, and of Șipote, in Iași County. He became ktitor of churches, dedicated to Moldavian Orthodoxy, in both localities.Apetrei, pp. 126, 181–184; Pahomi, p. 85; Stoicescu, p. 261 He purchased Arbore, including the present-day city of Solca and communes of Botoșana and Iaslovăț, in March 1502, developing it into his main demesne—favored, with Șipote, because it was closest to Stephen's preferred courts (Suceava and Hârlău).Pahomi, pp. 83–85, 102 Folklore records that Arbore used Polish and Ottoman prisoners of war as his laborers, forcing them to quarry stone from Solca River.Pahomi, p. 86 From his mother Nastasia, the gatekeeper also inherited the Bessarabian village of Hilăuți.Furtună, pp. 168, 170 Tradition further attributes him ownership of Hrițeni, in northern Bessarabia.Lefter, p. 291
Arbore married a lady Iuliana. One account suggests that she was the daughter of comis Petru Ezăreanul of Tutova County, also killed in the war of 1475; this remains disputed.Maria Magdalena Székely, "«Acești pani au murit în război cu turcii»", in Analele Putnei, Vol. II, Issues 1–2, 2006, p. 33. See also Stoicescu, p. 271 They had at least four male children: Toader, Nichita, and Gliga, and Ioan, the latter of whom did not survive into adulthood.Pahomi, pp. 90, 94, 96, 97 Some records attest a fifth son, Rubeo Arbore.Pahomi, p. 95 Of his seven daughters, Ana married the great comis Pintilie Plaxa. Another daughter, Marica, was the mother of Marica Solomon, wife of the vistier Solomon.Pahomi, pp. 90–91, 94–95, 97, 101, 102; Stoicescu, pp. 261–262, 323, 325, 446. See also Schipor, pp. 220, 222; Vătămanu, pp. 303–305, 309, 315 Finally, a daughter Sofiica was traditionally believed the wife of a great vistier, Gavril Totrușan (or Trotușan). Later researchers asserted that her husband was another vistier, Gavril Misici.Pâslariuc, p. 9 However, according to scholar Adrian Vătămanu, she may have been Totrușan's second wife, and Totrușan himself may have been a Misici.Vătămanu, pp. 304–306, 308–309, 315–316 Arbore also had a nephew, Dragoș, whom he groomed for the office of Suceava gatekeeperPâslariuc, pp. 11, 12–13 and to whom he donated an estate in Țăpești.
As a diplomat, Arbore carried out several diplomatic missions in Poland and the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Historian Valentina Eșanu believes that Arbore is Luka voloshanin or Luca walachus ("Luca the Vlach"), mentioned by several sources as leading Stephen's embassies to these two countries. This would mean that in 1496–1497 he accompanied the Muscovite envoy Ivan Oscherin, who was traveling back and forth between Moscow and Moldavia. This mission was part of a series of high-level contacts between Moldavia, Moscow, and Lithuania, persuading Alexander Jagiellon, who was only Grand Duke of Lithuania at the time, to withdraw from an alliance with Poland.Eșanu, pp. 137–138, 140
In 1497, as Poland invaded Moldavia and besieged Suceava, Arbore reportedly organized a "heroic defense" of the capital.Adauge, p. 83; Pâslariuc, pp. 3, 8. See also Pahomi, p. 84 The events at the brought Arbore into direct contact with the Polish king, John I Albert, as mentioned years later by Albert's brother, Alexander Jagiellon. Alexander's letter also confirms that Albert viewed Arbore as a possible contender for the Moldavian throne; in a different chronicle, the defenders are said to given the following reply to Albert: "Know that we will not betray our lord and his castles to you, for our lord, Prince Stephen, is in the field with his army; if you so desire, go and defeat him, and then his castles and the entire country will be yours."Pilat, p. 45 The same chronicle describes a meeting between Albert and Arbore outside the castle walls, a few days into the siege. Albert, thinking that Arbore might have princely aspirations, proposed to the gatekeeper that he handle him Suceava and receive support for obtaining the throne. Arbore refused; Albert then tried to capture Arbore, but the latter managed to retreat into the citadel.
Prominence
In late 1497, the itinerant Oscherin and Luka voloshanin were robbed in Terebovlia by a band of Crimeans and Cossacks, allegedly led by Prince Yapancha. The incident prompted Stephen to demand reparations from Meñli I Giray, but these were never fully returned.Eșanu, p. 138 In 1501, as tensions between Poland and Moldavia were being reignited, Arbore traveled to Halych and informed the local starosta that Moldavia intended to annex that city, and possibly other parts of the Ruthenian Voivodeship as well. It is however not known if the visit was an official diplomatic mission or Arbore's own initiative. That year, a number of Muscovite envoys were detained in Moldavia by Stephen, who wanted safety guarantees for his daughter Olena, imprisoned alongside his grandson Dmitry. The diplomats were released in June 1502, and accompanied back to Moscow by the Moldavians Doma and Ulyuka—according to Eșanu, these may be boyars Duma Burdur, or Duma Vlaiculovici, and Arbore.Eșanu, pp. 138–139, 141
In the fall of 1502, although Alexander Jagiellon had taken the Polish throne from his brother, Poland and Moldavia were again at odds with each other. In that context, Arbore had a prominent role in the occupation of Polish region of Pokuttya. He ordered his own tombstone at around the same time, possibly as a precaution.Pâslariuc, p. 3 During the campaign, Arbore again met the starosta of Halych, who asked him about the destruction of a castle by the Moldavians. Arbore gave a firm reply, meant to be heard by Alexander Jagiellon—it suggested that his lord, Stephen III, did not wish to have any castles near his border, save the castle of Halych.Pilat, p. 47 If the identification of Luca walachus is correct, in November 1503 Arbore also led a Moldavian delegation to Lublin, trying to reach an understanding over Stephen's annexation of Pokuttya.Eșanu, pp. 137, 139, 141
Arbore was also integrated on the Boyar Council in 1486, but only returned there in 1498, possibly because he was too often absent from the country on diplomatic assignments.Eșanu, pp. 136–137, 138 According to historian Virgil Pâslariuc, he was co-opted there because he supported Stephen's co-ruler and designated successor, Bogdan III, whose claim to the throne was contested by his brothers; and also because he was a distinguished warrior.Pâslariuc, pp. 2–3, 8 During the final years of Stephen III's reign, Arbore and Ioan Tăutu became increasingly influential, taking on more and more attributes; by 1503, Arbore had also risen through the Boyar Council, being listed there as the eighth most important boyar. For a while, he was the country's spatharios, or military commander.Vătămanu, p. 303
In 1504, with Stephen III dead, Arbore was allegedly a pretender to the throne, although he continued to serve as courtier of the recognized successor, Bogdan.Eșanu, pp. 136, 138; Pâslariuc, pp. 4–6, 8; Pilat, passim This account, contested by several historians, is based on Alexander Jagiellon's letter, which also claims that Arbore narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.Pâslariuc, pp. 4–5; Pilat, passim According to Nicolae Iorga, the whole episode, as narrated by the source, is "hard to believe" and "confusing". In 2013, Liviu Pilat argued that the whole controversy about Arbore's claim to the throne stems from a misreading of Alexander's letter, which refers only to the events of 1497.Pilat, passim Pâslariuc proposes that Bogdan used Arbore, his loyalist and mentor, to solidify his legitimacy.Pâslariuc, pp. 4–7, 8 He also notes that Bogdan punished his nephew Dragoș, who had "ruined a very expensive cannon", by confiscating one of his estates. This was an example of the prince "confronting the great families", with which he was otherwise at peace.Pâslariuc, pp. 12–13